Stocks rise after better-than-expected jobs report

NEW YORK — Stocks rose today after the government’s employment report showed fewer jobs were cut in February than expected.

The Labor Department’s monthly report is closely watched by investors and is seen as the most important measure of the economy’s health.

The better-than-expected jobs report helped push oil and other commodities higher. That helped energy and material companies like ExxonMobil Corp. and Chevron Corp.

Apple Inc. got a big boost as well after the company said its much-anticipated iPad table computer will hit store shelves April 3.

Employers cut 36,000 jobs last month, better than the 50,000 cuts forecast by economists polled by Thomson Reuters. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent. Economists were expecting it to rise to 9.8 percent.

Today’s gains, which followed a late-day rally Thursday, suggests that investors are optimistic the U.S. economy is improving. Though employers aren’t yet adding full-time staff, jobs growth is fundamental to a recovery because it puts money in more workers pockets, allowing them to increase spending.

“We haven’t won the game yet,” said James Meyer, chief investment officer at Tower Bridge Advisors. “We’re just getting back to neutral. You can’t get from negative to positive without crossing zero.”

In afternoon trading, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 82.76, or 0.8 percent, to 10,526.90. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index gained 11.34, or 1 percent, to 1,134.31, while the Nasdaq composite index added 26.74, or 1.2 percent, to 2,319.05.

About five stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange, where volume came to 430.8 million shares, compared with 424.1 million at the same time Thursday.

Signs of future jobs growth were encouraging in the report. Temporary workers, which are often seen as a precursor to employers adding full-time staff, rose 48,000 last month. Average hourly earnings rose by 3 cents to $22.46.

Employers can only squeeze so much production out of current workers before they need to add more staff, said Michael Cannivet, portfolio manager at Palo Capital.

The Labor Department wouldn’t quantify if severe snowstorms that pummeled the East Coast last month had any impact on the report. Economists estimated before the report that the storms could inflate job losses by 100,000 or more.

Jerry Harris, president and chief investment officer at Sterne Agee Asset Management, said March’s results could be even better because the bad weather likely negatively affected February’s data.

Energy companies were among the biggest winners on the day as oil rose about 1.7 percent to $81.61 a barrel. Chevron shares rose $1.14 to $74.22, while ExxonMobil rose 99 cents to $66.39.

Apple surged $8.02, or 3.8 percent, to $218.73.

Meanwhile, bond prices fell on signs of the improving economy. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, which moves opposite its price, rose to 3.69 percent from 3.61 percent late Thursday.